Singleton presented Order of the Palmetto

SENECA Former Oconee County sheriff James Singleton capped a nearly 40-year career in law enforcement by being awarded South Carolina’s highest honor.

The retired sheriff was awarded the Order of the Palmetto on Saturday at an appreciation dinner held at the Gignilliat Community Center in Seneca. State Sen. Thomas Alexander (R-Walhalla) made the presentation, reading the accompanying letter from Gov. Nikki Haley.

Both Singleton and his 38 and a half year career in law enforcement were feted at the dinner, emceed by retired South Carolina Highway Patrol captain Neil Brown, who had also worked for the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.

With 20 years as sheriff, Singleton is the longest serving sheriff in Oconee County history, with 12 years as chief deputy before that. He began his law enforcement career with the Walhalla Police Department.

Walhalla mayor Danny Edwards described Singleton as “a quiet man, but with a fierce determination.

“Another thing that every criminal investigator who’s going to be successful needs, and James Singleton has a bushel basket of this, is intuition,” Edwards said. “Some people call it instinct.”

Scott Arnold, an investigator with the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office, recounted growing up seeing Singleton as an embodiment of the law, never imagining, Arnold said, that he would some day work for him.

“It was an honor to work for him,” Arnold said. “He was like a dad to us.”

Others remembered Singleton as shepherding the department into the modern crime-fighting age, with improvements in equipment and training, improvement in the Special Weapons and Tactics team and the K-9 unit and formation in 2003 of the aviation unit.

From the time Singleton took office in 1993 until his retirement at the end of 2012, the department also grew from 33 sworn officers to the present 85 officers.